Rukmini dasi: This was in Berkeley. It was right around the time of the Rathayatra. We were all sitting in Prabhupada’s room, and Baradraj pulled a copy of Teachings of Lord Chaitanya off the shelf and he said, “Prabhupada, usually we see Lord Chaitanya depicted as having very long hair.” And Prabhupada said, “Yes, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, He was hippie.” So he said, “Yes, Chaitanya Mahaprabhu, He was hippie,” and everyone really started to laugh because he was detecting the mentality of the question. He said, “Therefore, He has come to save you. He was hippie so He has come to save you.”
But because of his Bengali accent, it was difficult to understand whether he was saying “save you.” The “s,” it’s a slightly “sh” in Bengali pronunciation. So people were thinking, “Is he saying? save you’ or is he saying? shave you’?” So Prabhupada immediately picked up on that and he said, “Yes, He has come to save you and shave you. Chaitanya Mahaprabhu has come to save you and shave you,” and he kept repeating it. It was so funny.
Reference: Following Srila Prabhupada-A Chronological Series by Rukmini Dasi
